Economies of Violence
Page187(202 of 281)

This book is an intervention into the current power ful framing devices for human traﬃcking that both expose traﬃcking and limit our understandings of it. The focus of my research has been on retracing the histories and geog- raphies of how those frames came into dominance after the Cold War. At the same time, I am acutely aware of the need to move on, to take alternative roads and engage new strategies. Thus, I conclude the book with ideas for how to en- gage antitraﬃcking from a more critical position. Again, the impetus for doing so is not to downplay the vio lence of traﬃcking but to elevate recognition of the subterranean vio lence that both makes traﬃcking possi ble and is obscured when traﬃcking is viewed as a mere aberration. I think a key intervention is to start approaching human traﬃcking as a symptom of a multifaceted injus- tice rather than as a singular prob lem. There has been such intense focus on human traﬃcking as the prob lem, as the violation, that we have failed to see the entire picture. Viewed as a symptom, we may approach antitraﬃcking from advocacy/ policy platforms focused on immigration laws, labor rights, prison reform, global ﬁnancial institutions, poverty alleviation in the context of urban decay, or even social ser vices reform. These ideas are already on the minds conclusion / antitrafficking beyond the carceral state